In 1938, every weekday afternoon at 5:30, proud parents could tune in to radio station WKBH to hear their children perform on The Kiddie Club, a variety show sponsored by the Erickson Bakery of La Crosse. The “Juvenile Players” sang, told jokes, and even wrote and directed their own “jolly plays” for the program, which was overseen by Lorraine Neumann and “Uncle Dave.” In a case of art imitating art, local teenager Eddie Koops wrote and directed a comedy skit in June 1938 at the Riverside Park bandshell showing the citizens of La Crosse what actually happened in the radio room while the kids were broadcasting a play. With the script lost to history, we can only guess at the antics. The radio show was popular enough that when WKBH launched a television station, The Kiddle Club made the jump, this time with “Uncle Ken.”

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on February 28, 2015 .